MovieMaker

Werner Herzog has directed more than 70 films, but Family Romance LLC is the first he's directed in Japanese, a language he doesn't speak.

The film is about a real-life Japanese company, Family Romance LLC, that rents out fathers and other loved ones to families in need.

Herzog himself was fatherless from a very young age, but he says that isn't what attracted him to Family Romance LLC. In fact, he says, he and his brother appreciated not having a father.

He also tells fathers how to talk with their children, tells moms how to get their sons to get rid of their motorcycles, and endorses this viral video.

If you like this one, share it with someone in your family, real or imaginary.

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David Dobkins got back to his roots for Netflix's Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga, in which Will Ferrell and Rachel McAdams play an Icelandic musical duo who dream of winning Europe's continent-wide annual music competition.

Dobkins got his first directing job on the video for Tupac Shakur's video for "I Get Around," and went on to shoot the Ridley Scott-produced Clay Pigeons, his debut film. From there, he worked with Owen Wilson and Jackie Chan on Shanghai Knights before scoring a massive hit with Wedding Crashers.

Eurovision reunites him with McAdams, who plays Sigrit, one-half of the group Fire Saga. Dobkins said he had one rule when he signed on to Eurovision: "The music's gotta be great."

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Babyteeth, the new film from Shannon Murphy, sneaks up on you.

The film follows Milla, a seriously ill teenager played by Eliza Scanlen, who falls for a small-time drug dealer and pill poppr named Moses — played by Toby Wallace, who perfectly captures the too-beautiful-for-this world charisma of so many addicts with a gravitational pull on those around them. Milla's parents are played by the excellent Essie Davis and Ben Mendelsohn.

Babyteeth is based on a play by Rita Kalnejais, who also wrote the script.

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With You Don't Nomi, filmmaker Jeffrey McHale uses thoughtful voiceover and deft editing to take Showgirls seriously. Is Paul Verhoeven's 1995 bomb, starring a very committed Elizabeth Berkley as aspiring topless dancer Nomi Malone, truly as bad as critics claimed at the time? Or is it a misunderstood satire? Or both?

Whatever the case may be, McHale shows how Showgirls belongs now to its audience — who embrace it for its camp, its wildness, and an LGBTQ message that many have found after the fact. He's made a documentary about Showgirls that is superior to Showgirls itself, but has empathy and respect for everyone involved, especially Berkley.

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Becky stars Lulu Wilson as a 13-year-old battling neo-Nazi prison escapees led by a very awful guy plays by Kevin James. It's not for everyone. We talked with directors Jonathan Milott and Cary Murnion about what kinds of conversations you need to have when your lead actor is a child surrounded by cinematic gore.

If you like this episode, or even if you don't, consider giving to these charities.

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"At the Drive-In," the new documentary from our guest Alexander Monelli, is about a band of movie lovers who saved a local drive-in.

At the start of the story, the Mahoning Drive-In theater in Leighton, Pennsylvania, is dying because it can't afford a new $50,000 digital projector. Then a group of young movie lovers sweep in and start showing classic movies — often while dressed as their favorite characters — and the parking lot starts drawing more and more cars.

One of them belongs to Mark Nelson, our other guest, who drives more than six hours every weekend to get to the Mahoning from his home in New Hampshire.

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Today our guest is Kyle MacLachlan, one of our favorite actors ever. He's one of the stars of Capone, in which Tom Hardy plays legendary gangster Alphone Capone, rendered almost helpless by the syphilis that racked his body and brain in his later years.

Much has been made of how supposedly weird Capone is, with its extended fantasy sequences, courtesy of writer-director Josh Trank. But in terms of Kyle MacLachlan movies, this one's pretty straightforward. He's a master at playing committed, decent good guys surrounded by decadence and mystery. Which is why it's so fun to see him as compromised characters like the one he plays in Capone.

We had a nice chat about the film, his career from Dune to Twin Peaks, and what he talks about with his friend David Lynch.

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Blood Quantum, from writer-director Jeff Barnaby, is a crackling zombie set on tribal land — where indigenous people are immune from whatever is turning white people into zombies.

It works as a straight-ahead, cheerfully grisly horror movie, or as a meditation on colonialism and capitalism. In this episode, Jeff discusses his influences, from Evil Dead to Night of the Living Dead, and how he used and reversed traditional zombie movie tropes. (He also points out some symbolism in Robocop you might have missed.)

And he explains the concept of Blood Quantum, which the U.S. government created in an effort to limit tribal membership. Barnaby explains that it was a "long-term erasure policy" designed to erase indigenous people from society.

"The idea behind it is, less Indians, less treaties to honor," he explained.

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The late screenwriter Blake Snyder famously originated a concept called Save the Cat to describe the moment when a film's protagonist wins viewers over — when he or she saves a cat, for example. The creators of the new horror film 1BR are well-aware of the Save the Cat concept, and rejected it in almost every way possible.

If you've seen the trailer for 1BR, (and if not, a minor spoiler ensues) you know that it's about a young woman named Sarah (Nicole Brydon Bloom) who moves into a new apartment complex with extremely strict rules. She sneaks in a cat, in defiance of a no-pet policy, and the punishment is harsh — for Sarah and the cat. From there, things spin out, as they often do when neighbors band together in pursuit of utopia.

1BR writer-director David Marmor and producer Alok Mishra join us for the latest MovieMaker Interviews to talk about, among other things, why they rejected Save the Cat so strongly. Here's an insane story Alok wrote for MovieMaker.com about how the film overcame fire, a late-night truck theft, and many other obstacles.

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We're in the golden age of online film festivals: For the first time, movie lovers can watch brand-new, lovingly curated films from the comfort of home, without having to look for parking, stand in line, or beg for tickets.

Are we looking for the bright side in a sad situation? Well, yeah. But if you're going to watch — or host — an online film festival, you'll want to be conscious of these online film festival dos and don'ts.

Festivals are doing their best to make the viewing experience as great as possible, but our guests on the latest MovieMaker Interviews podcast have learned a little bit about what works and what doesn't.

They are Wendy Eidson of the San Luis Obispo International Film Festival, one of the first to go online this year; Melanie Addington of the Oxford Film Festival, which is presenting new films weekly, and Michael Cain of EarthxFilm, which just wrapped.

We hope you enjoy the episode, and come away with some good ideas about how to support independent film, and film festivals.

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